Wire-weaving machine.



No. 788,953. I PATENTED MAY 2, 1905. E. F. SHELLABERG-E R. WIRE WBAVING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 12, 1904.

2 8EBBTS-BEEBT 1.

PATENTED MAY 2, 1905. E. F. SHELLABERGER. WIRE WEAVING MACHINE.

APPLICATION rum) NOV.12, 1904.

' z SHEETS-SHEET 2.

UNTTED STATES Patented May 2, 1905.

PATENT @EEicE.

WlRE-WEAVING MACHINE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 788,953, dated May 2, 1905 Application filed November 12, 1904. Serial No. 282,429.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, EDWARD F. SHELLABER- GER, of Dekalb, in the county of Dekalb and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Wire-Weaving Machines, of which the following is a specification. I

This invention relates to improvements in wire-weaving machines, and refers more par ticularly to an improved form of twister-head and cooperative mechanism whereby crosswires or stays are twisted upon and connected to a series of longitudinal strands.

The salient object of the invention is to provide a mechanism whereby transverse stays or cross-wires may be expeditiously twisted upon and attached to a series of single longitudinal strands, the cross-wires being twisted upon the several longitudinal strands simultaneously.

Other objects are to provide a mechanism which will enable a locking-coil to be formed upon each longitudinal strand with the consumption of a minimum amount of wire; to provide a mechanism which will produce a locking-coil devoid of sharply-bent angles, thereby preserving the integrity of the galvanizing coating of the wire; to provide a machine which can be operated with great rapidity and working upon the same general plan as the machine patented to me September 19, 1899, No. 633,370, and in general to provide a simple and improved apparatus of the character referred to.

The invention consists in the matters hereinafter described, and more particularly pointed out in the appended claims, and the same will be readily understood by reference to the accompanying drawings herein.

Figure 1 is a plan view of a series of twisterheads, the supporting mechanism within which they are mounted, and so much of the operative mechanism as is necessary to an understanding of the invention. Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the parts shown in Fig. 1. Fig.

3 is an end elevation of the twister-heads and connected parts, the wires upon which they act being omitted. Fig. 4 is a side elevation with parts in section of a single one of the twister-heads shown on an enlarged scale.

Fig. 5 is a similar view with the parts in changed position. Fig. 6 is a front end elevation of one of the twister-heads and a fragmentary portion of the shifting bar, the latter being shown in section. Fig. 7 is a detailed fragmentary plan view of one of the locking-coils and the strand upon which the coil is formed.

In a machine embodying my present invention a plurality of single wires are fed longitudinally through a series of twister-heads step by step, and at each step a cross-wire or stay is fed transversely through the series of twister heads and across the longitudinal strands and is thereupon coiled about the longitudinal strands in such manner as to firmly lock it to or unite it therewith.

Referring to the drawings, 1 designates as a whole a suitable yoke-frame, taking the form in the present instance of a channel-like memher, the two side members 2 and 30f which are parallel. Mounted to extend through said yoke are a plurality of twister-heads, each designated as a whole 4:, each having a reduced journal portion 5 extending through the two members of the yoke and carrying between said yoke members a gear 6, which is splined or otherwise rigidly secured to the journal portion. Collars 7 and 8, mounted upon the twister-head, serve to confine the latter against endwise movement, the collar 7 having its face remote from the yoke-frame formed into a cam 9.

Upon the body portion 10 of the twisterhead adjacent to the cam 9 is mounted a camring 11, which is adapted to cooperate with the cam 9, both the cam and cam-ring being provided with corresponding circumferentially extending inclined cam surfaces 12 and 13, respectively. Said interfitting parts are also provided with abrupt shoulders, as 14 and 15, which cooperate to limit the rotation of the cam-ring in one direction. Immediately in front of the cam-ring is loosely mounted upon the body of the twister-head a beveled ring 16, the rear face of which abuts against the proximate face of the cam-ring, while the forward-inclined face is arranged to act upon the cor-respondingly-inclined end 18 of a gripper 17.

The gripper 17 is pivoted between its ends,

head body, and the forward or outer end of said gripper terminates in a rounded-nose portion 20, adapted to be brought into bearing with the lower half of the twister-head body, so as to embrace but not grip. a strand of wire arranged to extend axially through the gripper-head, it being understood that the gripper-head is provided with an axial bore extending through it. In order that the acting end of the gripper may bear upon the opposed part of the twister-head body without clamping the strand of wire extending therethrough, it is provided in its acting face with a semicircular recess 21. The upper halves of each side of the twister-head are cut away opposite the acting end of the gripper, so as to form an upper passage 22, extending transversely through the twister-head beneath the gripper. Through this transverse passage 22 is exposed one side of the strand which extends longitudinally through the twister-head.

The end face 23 of the lower half of the twister-head body is proximately coincident with the forward end of the gripper; but the corners formed at the juncture of said end face 23 with the peripheral surface and with the radial surfaces are rounded off, as indicated at 24 and 25.

The series of gripper-heads is arranged in the same plane, and they are separately intergeared with each other, so that they rotate in unison, and when rotated to bring their grippers uppermost the transverse passages 22 are in register with each other. When in this position and with a longitudinal strand extending through each twister-head, a transverse or stay wire is fed through the openings of the several twister-heads. A set of tension fingers or levers 26 is then brought into bearing with the cross-wire at points at each side of each twister-head and the cross-wire thus drawn into Zigzag shape, and thereupon the twister-heads are rotated in unison and in such manner as to coil the transverse wire around the several strands. The construction and operation of the tension fingers or levers 26 is substantially identical with that shown and described in my said prior patent, No. 633,370, and requires no description herein.

The mechanism for actuating the twisterhead will now be described, and is in the present embodiment illustrated constructed as follows: 27 designates a rack mounted to reciprocate in the yoke-frame 1 and intermeshing with the several gears 6 of the twisterheads. Said rack 27 is, as in the case of the corresponding rack shown in my Patent No. 633,370, shifted by means of suitable mechanism a predetermined distance back and forth and in so reciprocating rotates the twisterhead a predetermined number of turns.

Independently-operating mechanism is provided for operating the gripping-jaws, so as to hold the latter in closed position during the twisting operation and to open said jaws to release the loop portion of the knot and permit the feeding forward of the longitudinal strands preparatory to applying the succeeding stay-wire. To this end a shifter-bar 28 is mounted in suitable supports to reciprocate transversely below and adjacent to the cam rings 11, said shifter-bar being reciprocated endwise by means of an oscillating lever 29, pivoted between its ends, as indicated at 30, connected with the shifter-bar by means of a slot-and-pin connection, as indicated at 31, and at its opposite end provided with a cam-stud 32, which engages a cam-groove 34:, formed in a rotary cam 33. Upon the lower side of each cam-ring is provided to radially project stud 35, the several studs being arranged to extend within and engage corresponding slots 36, formed in the shifter-bar 28. The cam-collars 7 are respectively secured against rotary movement with the twister-head. conveniently by means of pins 37, extending through the collars and into the adjacent yoke-frame, as best illustrated in Figs. 4 and 5. It follows that when the cam-rings 11 are rocked in one direction through the medium of the shifterbar the incline cooperating cam-faces forcesaid cam-rings forwardly, thereby moving up the beveled or conical rings 16 against the incline tailpieces of the several grippers, thus closing the latter positively into bearing with the opposed jaws. The slots 36 in the shifterbar are transversely elongated to permit this endwise-traveling movement of the cam-rings, as shown clearly in the drawings. Upon the return movement of the shifter-bar the camrings are rotated back, so that they and the beveled rings 18 are free to be retracted, and this retracting movement is effected by the feeding-forward movement of the fence fabric, the loops being thus drawn out from engagement with the grippers and in this manner oscillating the latter and forcing back the cams.

The operation of the mechanism has been substantially indicated in the foregoing description of its construction, but may be briefly recapitulated as follows: Assuming that a set of longitudinal strand-wires have been threaded through the several twister-heads and are by suitable mechanism fed forward step by step after each feedingforward movement and while the twister-heads are in register with each other and the gripper-jaws open, a cross-wire is fed across each of the longitudinal wires and behind the nose of each of the grippers. Thereupon the shifter-bar 28 is operated to close the grippers. The tensioning fingers 26 are next actuated to draw the slack of the cross-wire forwardly and into substantially the position shown in Fig. 1, and thereupon while the grippers are held closed the rack-bar is actuated to rotate the twister-heads a predetermined number of complete revolutions. The rotation of each twister-head forms the slack of that portion of the cross-wire engaged thereby into a duplex coil, embracing the longitudinal strand and terminating at its free end in a substantially round loop, the loop being formed around the nose of the gripper, as shown clearly in Fig. 4 of the drawlngs. The tension of the fingers 26 is sufiicient to enable the twister-heads to form tightlytwisted coils in the stay-wire, and the relation of the tension-fingers to the acting nose of the twister-heads is such that the several turns of each knot or coil will be in close bearing with each other. At the conclusion of the twisting movement the shifter-bar is retracted, thus rotating back the cam-rings 11, so that they are free to shift endwise upon the twisterhead body, and upon the forward feeding movement of the longitudinal strands the staywire last applied draws out from beneath the now released grippers, thus opening the latter for the reception of the succeeding staywire, the foregoing cycle of operations being repeated in applying each stay-wire.

It will be understood from the foregoing that I accomplish the several objects of my invention hereinbefore stated and provide an exceedingly simple and practical mechanism for rapidly weaving wire fabric of the character described.

While I have herein shown and described what I deem to be a preferred embodiment of the invention, yet it will be understood that the details of construction and arrangement may be modified without departing from the spirit of the invention, and I do not, therefore, limit myself to the details shown, except to the extent that they are made the subject of specific claims.

I claim as my invention 1. In a fence-machine, atwister-head rotatable about its longitudinal axis and provided with a passage for a longitudinally-disposed strand of wire, a jaw mechanism at the end of said twister-head arranged to close over the longitudinal strand, and to form when closed a substantially closed transverse passage through the head for the reception of a crosswire, means for actuating said jaw mechanism, and means for rotating the twister-head.

2. In afence-machine, a twister-head rotatable about its longitudinal axis and provided with apassage extending axially therethrough, a jaw mechanism at the end of said twisterhead arranged to close over a strand inserted through said longitudinal passage, and to form when closed a transverse passage through the twister-head wherein one side of the longitudinal strand is exposed, means for closing and locking said jaw mechanism, and means for rotating the twister-head bodily.

3. In a fence-machine, a series of twisterheads journaled to rotate about their longitudinal axes and arranged in the same general plane, each twister-head provided with an axial bore and a jaw mechanism arranged to close over a strand of wire extended through said bore, and to form when closed a transverse passage through the twister-head immediately in rear of the meeting portions of the jaw mechanism, mechanism for rotating said twister-heads in unison a predetermined number of revolutions, and mechanism for closing and holding said jaw mechanism closed during the rotation of the twister-heads.

4. In a fence-machine, the combination of a twister-head journaled to rotate in a suitable frame and provided with an actuating-gear rigid with the twister-head, a fixed jaw and a movable jaw upon the exposed end of said twister-head, an axial bore extending through the twister-head and between the cooperating parts of said jaws, said jaws being constructed to form a transverse passage through the twister-head therebetween wherein a strand inserted through said axial bore is exposed at one side, .intergeared driving connections for rotating said twister-heads in unison and coextensively, cam mechanism for simultaneously closing said several jaw mechanisms, and a shiftable member arranged to operate said cam mechanism.

5. In a fence-machine, a twister-head comprising a main body portion provided with a journaled portion mounted in a suitable frame and having a pinion mounted concentrically upon said journaled portion, a cam member mounted contiguous to said twister-head but fixed against rotation therewith, a cam-ring mounted to oscillate upon the body of said twister-head and arranged to cooperate with said cam member, a fixed jaw formed upon said twister-head, a movable jaw or gripper pivoted upon said twister-head body to cooperate with said fixed jaw, a cam-incline upon said gripper arranged to cooperate with said cam-ring, means for rotating the twister-head through its pinion, andmeans for oscillating the cam-ring, for the purposes set forth.

6. In a fence-machine, a twister-head com prising a main body portion provided with a journaled portion mounted in a suitable frame and having a pinion mounted concentrically upon said journaled portion, a cam member mounted contiguous to said twister-head but fixed against rotation therewith, a cam-ring mounted to oscillate upon the body of said twister-head and arranged to cooperate with said cam member, a fixed jaw formed upon said twister-head, a movable jaw or gripper pivoted upon said twister-head body to cooperate with said fixed jaw, a cam-incline upon said gripper arranged to cooperate with said cam-ring, a reciprocatory rack operatively engaged with the pinion of the twister-head, and a reciprocatory shifter-bar operatively engaged with the cam-ring of the twister-head, substantially as described.

7. Inafence-machine, the combination with coextensively, mechanism for simultaneously actuating the several movable jaws and for holding the latter closed during the rotative movement of the twister-heads, and a series of tension devices arranged to act upon a crosswire at points on each side of each twisterhead, substantially as described.

EDWARD F. SHELLABERGER.

Witnesses:

ALBERT H. GRAVEs, FREDERICK C. GOODWIN 

